Letters To My Traveling Soldiers
by supertramp1617
Summary: Men fighting in Iraq, including Edward Cullen, are lonely, and depressed. In a desperate attempt to raise their spirits, the government has assigned Bella Swan to write them love letters. But what will happen when she actually falls for one of her penpals


**This is my first FanFic, so tell me if it sucks. If you like it, i'll continue...I promise the story gets better!! Thanks so much for checking out my story!**

**Chapter 1**

It all started with a letter. It ended with a letter, too, I guess. Come to think of it, I it was all based on the letters. Maybe. Well, not the _entire _thing; Edward and I played our parts in the story, but really, the letters started it all…

Not a _letter _letter; not like the alphabet, but like the kind you seal up in an envelope. They're so powerful. I'd never really noticed, but each letter means something. It could be a letter from a boy to a girl, letting her know he'd thought she was the most beautiful person in the world, inside and out, from the first time he'd seen her. It could be a simple, short letter, from one country to another, declaring war. It didn't matter. It meant something. And my letter, the one I received, started it all.

"Guess who?" I whispered into Mike's ear, my cool hands clamped firmly over his eyes.

"Hmmm, Angela?" I growled,

"No,"

"Hailey?"

"No!" I squealed,

"Katie? Laura? Brianne?" I made an angry mixed with debating sound, and he laughed. "Give me a hint?"

"You'd better be joking, Michael Eugene Newton."

"Dude," Jasper laughed low in his throat; he was definitely high, and it looked like I'd showed up a little late for the pot segment of the party. "You're middle name is Eugene? Don't your parents know that's a girl's name?"

"No it's not, man!" Mike was high, too. "You can shorten it to Gene,"

"Which is a girl's name," Alice and I both laughed. I let go of Mike's eyes, and he kissed my wrist.

"Hey baby," I frowned.

"Say my name." He laughed, and shook his head, pulling me into his lap by the arm. "Say my name, Mike."

"I forget it!"

"Stop being an asshole, and say my name!" He shook his head again, and I saw red as Alice's eyes turned sympathetic. "One more chance, Mike. Say my fucking name." I looked down into his bright aqua, half-closed, bloodshot eyes, and hated him for a moment, because I knew he wouldn't say it.

"Why can't I just call you baby?"

"Because you and I both know that's what you call me and all your other girls so that you won't get our names mixed up." He laughed,

"Not true, baby." I struggled to get out of his lap, and he held on tight. "Don't be like that, baby. You know I love you."

"Emmett," I said, and tried to keep the alarm out of my voice. Mike was strong, and he was hurting me without even knowing it. _What'll happen when he's _trying_ to hurt me?_ Emmett stood from where was sitting by a dirty old couch with Rosalie, and walked over.

"Let her go, Mike. Now." His voice didn't leave any room for bullshit.

"Oh come on, man. Don't be like that. It's not like I'm gonna hurt her. I just want to knock some sense into her. Right, baby?" He squeezed my arm in warning, and I felt like the bone was going to snap. All it took was the one flinch from me, and Emmett was on Mike, punching every inch he could reach while I scrambled away, and Alice kissed Jasper on the nose before flitting off the sofa, and following me out onto the street.

"Go back to the party, Ally." I growled, rubbing the skin, "Jazz is gonna be pissed with me if you follow me away." She snorted.

"Shut up. I'm coming with you no matter what you say." I sighed, and felt her put a tiny arm around my waist. "You okay?" She asked, and I laughed bitterly.

"He's an asshole anyway." She grinned.

"Let's go get fucked up."

"You took the words right out of my mouth, Ally." We looped arms, and set off into the night.

That's how, a few hours later, I was stumbling my way up my driveway, Ally still hooked onto my arm. I was _completely _out of it; drunk, high, barely able to walk, and I was cracking up about nothing in particular.

"Come on, Bella. One last step," Ally said, and started laughing hysterically. I found that unbearably funny for some reason, and started laughing until my spleen felt like it was going to break.

Eventually, we made it to the front porch, and collapsed on the steps, breathless. I sobered up a little as I heard the floorboards creak, and Charlie came into view with his hands on his hips. Scary, was the first word that came to mind.

"Charlie," I slurred, "Are how you this evening?" In my narrowed mind, something in the already ridiculous sentence sounded off, but I ignored it.

"Chief Swan," Ally mumbled, saluting him, and we both broke into hysterics again.

"You two are drunk." He concluded, and I heard him shift; it felt like two seconds later that I was being lifted into the air, and I felt like I was flying. I made cawing noises, because they seemed necessary, and heard someone cluck their tongue, which bothered me; _Why don't they want the bird to make bird noises? _

Then I was distracted by a cool pillow under my head, and a warm hand resting comfortingly on my forehead before it was gone, and I was asleep.

The next morning sucked…a lot.

I woke up, and found myself in my room, with my head at an awkward angle, my neck growing stiffer every second, and my head was pounding. That was just the beginning. There was an air mattress on the hardwood, and I distinguished Alice's tiny form curled up in a ball under the salmon-pink covers. She was obviously more affected by the alcohol than I was. I glanced at the clock, and noticed that if today was a school day, I was missing school. I couldn't care less, I hated school anyway.

I didn't dare sit up, so I let myself roll out of my bed and onto the floor. Someone had removed my jeans, and I groped until I found them in corner. I squinted at the tiny screen of my phone, and cursed when I saw that I had no new messages. _Asshole. He didn't even bother to call me to apologize. _That still wasn't the worst thing.

I decided that I wasn't really all that dizzy, just numb all over, and I really had to pee, so I stood. I gripped the bureau for support, and leaned against it for a moment, finding my legs again. I blinked, then drew in a deep breath, and slowly made my way to the bathroom in my underwear.

As I got into the tiny, girly restroom that conjoined with mine, I glanced in the mirror, and noticed the worst thing.

Not only was my hair one huge, tangled snarl, but there was a nice bruise forming on my wrist, each of Mike's fingers leaving a perfect impression. My eyes traveled down, and I gasped as I noticed huge bruises forming on the inside of my thighs, and farther back.

I closed my eyes, hoping that maybe they were just a trick of the light, or a scary part of a dream, but when I opened them again, the bruises were still there; angry, dark, and promising they would be worse tomorrow.

I'd seen this a thousand times before; not on me, but on others. People I'd been around who'd been served an open drink, and been too high or drunk to care about the rules every girl knew when she went to a big party. These girls I knew had been served date rape drugs, and had the same marks I was looking at now. I'd also seen the pictures from Charlie's work; warnings to me when I got a little too wild-that if I kept partying this hard, eventually something like that would happen to me. Well it had.

_I've been raped. _

I closed my eyes reflexively against the harsh thought, begging it to not be true. I tried to remember anything about last night, and remembered feeling angry about Mike; betrayed and cheated and…scared? Yes, somewhere in there, I was very frightened. Bleary, but frightened. I remembered leaving Jazz's house, and going to another party. We told Wayne that we wanted to get fucked up, and he'd given us some pills, and beer to follow them into our stomachs. I didn't remember much after that. But when I concentrated, I remembered being scared, but weak. Having hands grip me too hard in places they shouldn't be touching me, places I wouldn't even let Mike touch me. Being too feeble at the moment, to rip those strong hands off of me, and punch the bastard in the nose, even though that's all I wanted to do. Scariest of all, I remembered bright aqua eyes…Mike's eyes.

_He was being beaten by Emmett. _I reminded myself, _It couldn't have been him.._

I nodded, consoled slightly, but now I was certain that I'd been violated.

The question now was whether or not to tell Charlie…

"What the fuck happened to you?" Ally's voice shook, and her eyes resembled a deer's in the headlights. I started to cry quietly.

"I got raped last night at that party." I said, and then her tiny arms were around me; hugging me tightly to her petite self, like she was shielding me from whatever, _whoever_ had hurt me.

"Oh Bella," I wiped my eyes, and sniffed a couple of times.

"I can't tell my father." I said, and she pulled back to look at me, incredulous, but still scared.

"What do you mean? He might be able to catch the fucker." I shook my head.

"No, Ally. I wouldn't be able to stand the embarrassment. I can only hope and pray I'm not pregnant, and try to cut back on the partying." She pursed her lips.

"Fine, it's your choice. But I'm gonna cut back with you…I feel like this is all my fault." She started crying too, and I hugged her again, even though I should be the one needing comforting.

"Don't be stupid, Ally," I said, getting uncomfortable. My father and I had never really dealt with all that touchy feely emotional crap. "I knew the rules, and I screwed up. That has nothing to do with you at all." She pulled back again, much ot my relief.

"That's so dumb. It's my fault we got the drugs, and I encouraged you to get drunk, too. Didn't you learn _anything _in dare, loser? Peer pressure? 'If everyone jumped off the Empire State Building, would you do that, too?'" I frowned,

"You know, I never really understood that question. If everyone jumped off the Empire State Building, plummeting to their deaths, wouldn't the pile of dead people be high enough to save you? And let's just say it wasn't would you want to be the last person alive? All by yourself? Maybe it would be fun to go shopping for free, but there would be no one to show it off to, everyone would be dead! So eventually, yeah, I would get bored, and follow everyone else. Anyone would" She walked out of the bathroom in an exasperated way, giving me a funny look.

"Bella Swan, you are sooo fucked up."

"Yeah, against my will," I grumbled as I followed her, and pulled on my stale jeans.

"How can you be so laid back about this?" She cried, "I would be having a breakdown!" I shrugged,

"I sort of did that before you waked into the bathroom. I realize what happened, and yeah, I'm a little scared. But I'll survive, and I won't let it happen again. I'll become a social hermit." She laughed,

"Then I'm becoming a hermit with you." I laughed.

"And we'll live here, in my room, with no boys or drinks or drugs." She groaned,

"Awww, I can't invite Jazz?" I shook my head with mock seriousness.

"Hermits don't get the benefits of a boyfriend." She laughed,

"Then I change my mind. You can be a hermit alllll by yourself."

"Maybe I won't be a hermit, but I'm definitely kicking boys for a while." She nodded,

"Good plan."

"And you promise not to tell anyone," She glanced at me as I pulled a new shirt over my head.

"I promise," She said finally, after giving me a long look.


End file.
